Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-04-29
Bill NYG on BOilS.

/ am having a hignly nulhorouo
experience with boils, says Bill Nye !
in an Asheville, n. G., letter to the
Chicago NelcS. To others this an
nouncement will come with no ele-
ment of sadness, perhaps, but 10
me it brings thrill of the keenest !
and most poignant anguish A
man might go all over a whole
country and not find anything
more poignant than these boils
seem to me.
There are seven of these little
blossoms, and they hang in rich
cluster on the back of my neck,
about two inches below what the
phrenologists call love of home.
[ had never brought ont a boil
until last week, though | have LED
a very checkered life, but on Thurs
day morning awoke to find my
self the parent of seven cunning
little red-headed boils about the
size of a pumpkin seed.
They are small, but oh how rest
less they are, and how they struggle
with each other for supremacy.
People here say these bOils are a
result Of the climate. The air here
is especially calculated to bring out
anything IN the line of latent
humor. A man who had been run
ming a humorous weekly paper in
the far west came here and in two
weeks he broke out so that MS
friends had to do him up in a poul-
tice seven feet long. ! am not do
ing much tor these boils because l
want to teach them to be self're-
liant and depend up themselves
One of them was q puny little
thing at first, and felt sorry for IL
when my friends told me about 1t.
I cannot see these bOils, OF course,
as they are not in the direct line
of vision, being on the back OF my
neck. SO I get a friend-One l can
trust-and let him come and tell
me how they are doing from time
to time.
This little bOil at first did not
bid fair to hold out more than q
day or two, but Yesterday it began
to throw aside its lethargy and to
realize that life is real. 1t is fully
abreast of the others now and has
a large and very active crater to IT.
For three days l put various
things on these bois among Others
soap, sugar, the white of an egg,
ground flaxseed, bread and milk,
bread and molasses, ETC., etc. There
were other things recommended
but as the bois were all in a clus
ter had to try one thing at 8
time. With seven boils we'll dis
tributed might have tried severa
remedies at once, but | did the bes
| could. In three days | have rem
dered Sl3 worth of groceries en-
tirely useless to the consumer.
One great difficulty has been tn
unsatisfactory results of my effort
to get any sleep. Before | wa
overtaken by the poll.evil used Il
rest on the back OF my head ant
neck at night a good deal; bu
after a few experiments with m,
head pillowed on these seven littI
hot headed boils | found that /
made my head too high.
Roils visit the rich and poo
alike, the humble and exalted
They are not a mark of greatness
for bolls frequently come to tn
obscure and the unknown. The
do not come with the seeking an
they are not obtained by study O
effort. BOils fall to the lot Of man
whose lives would otherwise I
void of incident. To such they al
indeed great benison, or may
used as such. How many peop
do We know who have naught ell
to show us in the way of progress
, but a kind Providence has besto'
ed boil upon them now and tbeI
which they can exhibit as an ev
dence that they are not remainin
absolutely stagnantl